General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 18, 2013

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 18, 2013

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Conspiracy Theory of the Week: DSEA Sells Out Public Schools, Secures Raises for Teachers. If you were wondering why DSEA agreed to support charter schools' grubby grab of public cash earmarked for public schools, we may now have the answer. Included in the Governor's budget is "$8.5 million for 'step increases'  for  school employees, gradual pay raises teachers get as they gain experience and education", according to Monday's News-Journal article by Matthew Albright. Considering that the first $2 mill of the charter schools cash grab is also in the same budget bill, we can see how Markell bought off public education officials. Another $2.6 million is for 'state testing computers', yet more money down the rabbit hole of standardized testing. Need I remind anyone that we've got $8.5 mill for teachers' increases, $0.00 for state employee increases. While I'm fine with raises for teachers, Strongly supportive in fact, I'm not fine with the Deal with the Devil that enabled them. Ladies and gentlemen, your Democratic governor. And the purported protectors of public education. BTW, time for, IMHO, an important digression. Is it possible, just possible, that Jack Markell is campaigning...for CIA Chief? I'm (sorta) serious about this. The man who ran on the issue of government transparency has made secrecy the defining touchstone of his second term. First, the Port machinations. Then, the Charter Schools debacle, where his administration literally dared doubters to file a FOIA lawsuit. And, just this Sunday, an incredible piece by Jeff Montgomery in the News-Journal, which effectively lays out a strong case that Gov. Markell deliberately suppressed environmental data casting serious doubt on the environmental safety of the Delaware City oil refinery. Deliberately suppressed. Anybody getting angry yet? Meanwhile, SB 97(Henry) "adds the term “gender identity” to the already-existing list of prohibited practices of discrimination and hate crimes. As such, this Act would forbid discrimination against a person on the basis of gender identity in housing, employment, public works contracting, public accommodations, and insurance, and it would provide for increased punishment of a person who intentionally selects the victim of a crime because of the victim’s gender identity." SB 97 received the bare minimum 11 votes required to pass the Senate. I think it will likely have a more comfortable margin in the House.

Hiding Behind Lawyers to Hide Coastal Zone Impacts Isn’t A Good Management Strategy

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It just makes people think that you are trying to hide something, which, apparently, the Markell Administration is doing. Today's NJ brings us another story of the ongoing issues surrounding the PBF refinery at Delaware City. In the main, it looks like the refinery is expanding its operations outside of its permitted area (staging and unloading rail cars outside of the boundary of the plant; a planned barge shipment of oil over to a NJ plant), and taxpayers aren't being allowed to see whether or not there are violations of the state's Coastal Zonal Act here.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 13, 2013

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 13, 2013

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Let me get this straight. Jack Markell cuts taxes for his wealthy friends early this session. The only tax among the so-called temporary emergency taxes enacted in 2009 that he cut. Now he says he needs $80 million in new taxes and fees, or bridges will fall down, highways will crumble. Oh, and if they do, it will be somebody else's fault because Markell gave the legislators a full 2 1/2 week's warning before the end of session. Maybe, just maybe, if he stopped appearing on TV, writing half-baked op-eds, or accepting ginned-up awards created solely to increase his national stature (I recommend lifts as an alternative), he might find time to, you know, actually govern. I mean in public, not in secret.
As the Sussex GOP Turns… or These are the Days of our Tin Foil…

As the Sussex GOP Turns… or These are the Days of our Tin Foil…

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So Delaware Politics has a story up by the very wonderful Don Ayotte, currently a member of the Independent Party of Delaware (iPod), formerly a Republican candidate for Sussex County Council, about the current Sussex County GOP Spokesman, Duke Brooks. I am preserving the story in its entirety as it appears Delaware Politics is suffering some site outages at the moment, most likely due to David Anderson or some other admin over there trying to delete the story. Here it is...
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds. June 12, 2013

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds. June 12, 2013

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Let us circle June 11, 2013 on the calendar. It will go down as a day when public schools were dealt yet another blow at the hands of greed and silence. The Governor's greedy desire to rise above his station, D's and R's alike greedy desire to get their hands on funds they shouldn't have, the press' unwillingness to function as journalists instead of lapdogs; a conspiracy of silence that rippled through the Delaware Way, leaving only the have-nots behind (admittedly, that's a dog-bites-man story in Jack Markell's Delaware). Here's the roll call on the charter schools money grab, if you have the heart. Oh, and if anyone thinks that $5 mill is the end instead of the beginning, well, you're not thinking. So, Markell will get his Race to the Top filthy lucre and his imaginary presidential street cred, Charlie Copeland (!) will parlay his family's expertise in bankruptcies into running a hy-ooge city charter. A Tower Hill grad who inherited his fortune will be one of the largest players in Delaware education. In the inner city. I mean, has anybody with any say-so over who gets to run a charter ever read Dissolute Recrimination? The politicians who supported this railroad job (deliberations in private, rushed through in a week and a half) opted to serve themselves instead of the majority of their constituents. The least they could do is let everyone in on the details of the deals. A very dark day for public education in Delaware.  And a black mark on the Delaware General Assembly that won't be easily removed. Jack Markell is now officially dead to me.